This invention relates generally to tactile sensors and more specifically to improved triaxial force detectible tactile sensors made up of a microminiature array of multiple transducers, and particularly adapted for use with grasping end portions of robotic manipulatable end-effector arms. A tactile sensor is a device that is designed to be sensitive to one or more parameters that the human touch can detect such as temperature, object contour, and object surface texture. Tactile sensing has been defined as the continuous sensing of variable contact forces commonly by an array of sensors.
Up until recently, the presently known sensors used on robotic end-effectors have been able to detect and measure only normal direction applied loads, that is, those applied perpendicular to the sensor surface. They have had no known capability for detecting lateral or shear loads, nor for direct measurement of slippage of the object being robotically grasped. Thus, heretofore the many types of objects handled robotically essentially necessarily have been primarily limited to those where only normal loading is being applied, detected and measured.